AARP supports State Children's

Published
6:00 pm CST, Friday, November 9, 2007

Health Insurance Program|

The big political debate right now in Washington, D.

By Alex Rose

Midland Reporter-Telegram

The big political debate right now in Washington, D.C, is around the issue of children's health insurance. The program in question, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), is designed to provide health care to children whose families are above the poverty line but who still cannot afford health insurance.

As debate continues, AARP stands in full support of the SCHIP program. We firmly believe that bringing health insurance to nearly 10 million uninsured children is a worthy goal for our government and our nation.

We do not believe that the health-care discussion is complete at this point. There's another issue yet to be addressed: Medicare, or more specifically, the issue of rising premiums and ensuring access to doctors.

No one wants to see their doctor drop out of the Medicare program. But if Congress does not act, Medicare physicians will be forced to take a 10 percent cut in reimbursement, which could mean that doctors will limit the number of Medicare patients they can treat. Congress must act this year to ensure that Medicare patients continue to have access to the doctors they know and trust.

To fix this problem, Congress has a choice: either allow Medicare premiums to rise to pay for a greater portion of the doctor's fee, or cut back on the excess payments to private insurance companies and use those dollars to help keep your monthly premiums low.

We believe that Congress should eliminate excessive spending, not pass the burden on to Medicare patients in the form of higher premiums.

Currently, private insurance companies are receiving excessive payments from the government totaling billions of dollars, and taxpayers are footing the bill. Meanwhile, Medicare premiums have doubled since the year 2000.

Here are the options:

- Do nothing and let doctors and patients deal with the consequences.

- Ensure continued access to doctors - paid for by people on Medicare through higher premiums.

-Ensure continued access to doctors and keep Medicare premiums low by reigning in excessive payments to insurance companies.

Let's make sure they hear from all of us before they make their choice.